To know more about Ebola
Note linked to the online discussion: “Ebola and food
security and nutrition in West Africa: facing the
challenges”
Prepared by F. Tékpon Gblotchaou, facilitator of the discussion
The Ebola virus, identified for the first time in 1976 in Sudan as well as in the north of Zaire,
infected 284 people in six months in Sudan causing 117 deaths and in Zaire there were 318
people infected of whom 280 died within two months.
A second outbreak appeared in Zaire in 1977 and in Sudan in 1979. An epidemic outbreak in
Kikwit (Zaire) in 1995 infected 315 people of whom 244 died. In Gabon, the first case in 1994
was followed by others in February and July 1996. No other infection by the Ebola virus was
reported until the outbreak of the epidemic in Gulu, Uganda in the autumn of 2000. In West
Africa, an isolated case of the Ebola hemorrhagic fever and an epidemic among chimpanzees
were observed in Ivory Coast in 1994.
After the accidental contamination of a first person, the virus is transmitted by body fluids of
a sick person in the clinical phase: by direct contact with infected blood, body or organs
secretions or sperm (saliva, blood, urine, feces of an infected person are loaded with the
virus), even by contact with aerosol droplets, vomits and perhaps with perspiration. The
potential transmission by sexual contact with a cured patient has not been ascertained, but it
has been demonstrated that the Ebola virus is found in genital secretions of convalescing
patients many weeks after the illness.
The symptoms of Ebola appear in the majority of patients within a few days of infection by a
rapid temperature increase, accompanied by fatigue, muscle pain, headaches and diarrhea.
Some patients can present sore throat, hiccups, skin rash, vomiting of blood and bloody
diarrhea (called "red diarrhea" in french-speaking Africa). Other symptoms can occur: infected
conjunctivitis and difficulty in swallowing (dysphagia). The person infected is extremely weak
and loses weight very quickly, due both to the lack of nutrition and to the illness itself. Later
symptoms like vomiting, diarrhea, maculopapular rash, renal and hepatic impairment and
hemorrhagic diathesis; impairment of liver, pancreas, kidneys and, to a much lesser degree, of
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Note on: Ebola and food security and nutrition in West Africa
the Central Nervous System and heart; leukopenia, thrombocytopenia and raised
transaminases might follow.
The fevers, often fluctuating in the first days, can disappear in the terminal phase. Death is
preceded by the emergence of tachypnea, hypotension, tachycardia and anuria. The little
available data does not show lung impairment to explain tachypnea and the blood loss due to
hemorrhages is still insufficient to explain the hypotension.
Diagnosis is difficult because the early symptoms like red eyes and itching of the eyes are not
specific. If someone shows the symptoms mentioned above and infection by the Ebola virus is
suspected, various laboratory tests need to be carried out.
There is no specific treatment or vaccination.
Global Forum on Food Security and Nutrition in West Africa
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